Markets in Brief

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries beat the Japanese drug company Takeda on Friday, when a U.S. appeals court ruled that the Israeli drug company had not infringed Takeda's patent covering heartburn medicine Prevacid SoluTab. In November 2009, a lower court ruled that Teva's method of dissolving the tablets in liquid differed from the method covered by the patent, which Takeda had licensed from a French drug development company, Ethypharm. (TheMarker)

Bank Hapoalim doesn't think Israeli stocks will go anywhere in particular in the coming months. Share prices have been hovering and are likely to continue doing so, the bank's equity analysts predict. The sharp gains of 2009 beg profit-taking. In the longer run, it says, large-caps are likely to break previous value records. Bank Leumi on the other hand predicts that the positive trend will continue because of macroeconomic improvements and low yields on conservative assets. It is true that share prices aren't low, however, so Leumi is predicting much volatility and risk. (Lior Zeno)

At the end of last week, Royal Bank of Canada issued a report on Amdocs following that company's fiscal first-quarter report. To wit: The company beat the consensus and RBC's own expectations for the quarter by a little bit. Amdocs' guidance for its fiscal second quarter, ending at the end of March, is also encouraging, writes RBC: Its revenue guidance is well above the consensus. RBC tweaked its projections for 2010 upward and repeated a Outperform rating, and a $38 12-month price target. (TheMarker)

Merrill Lynch's 12-month price objective for Amdocs is $37, by the way, not the price the bank itself stated in a report it disseminated. TheMarker knows but won't tell you what that price was, in order not to muddy the issue. (TheMarker)

As you read, 16 companies have been moved from the main market to the Maintenance List of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, which is the list of companies in noncompliance with some or other listing requirement. Unless they make lightning moves to right their wrongs, the 16 are Arpal Aluminum Systems, Aviv Advanced Solutions, Avrot Industries, Binyan Mortgage Bank, Building Resources, Caesarea Investments, Carmel Holdings, Dor Chemicals, Euro Globe Overseas, Hofit Kibbutz Kinneret, ILD Insurance Holdings, Juno Capital, Lito Group, Phoenix Holdings, Polar Real Estate, and Yuval Engineering Industries. Only Lito is on the shortlist because of low shareholders equity. The rest have issues involving minimum public float, in terms of number of shares or value. (TheMarker)

A week after selling the Haifa Mall to the Azrieli group, to drum up cash to meet loan payments, Delek Real Estate has sold three gas stations and its 50% right to certain lands to fellow group company Delek Israel, for NIS 43 million. Eran Meital, CEO of Delek Real Estate, commented that the company will continue its policy of divesting assets to increase liquidity. (Michael Rochvarger)

In its weekly review of the mutual funds sector, Meitav says last week was characterized by "corporate bonds and general index of stocks IN, government bonds OUT." It also says the capital influx into mutual funds has been accelerating, mainly into funds specializing in corporate bonds and shares. From the start of 2010 through last Thursday, mutual funds raised NIS 0.5 billion from the general public, Meitav adds, and the value of the assets the funds hold increased by NIS 1.5 billion. (TheMarker)

Clal Finance repeated an Outperform rating for Africa Israel Residences and a 12-month price target of NIS 73. Granted, 2009 smiled upon the company, says analyst Aviran Revivo: Sales were strong and he anticipates they will stay that way through 2011. In 2009 Africa Israel Residences said it sold 656 apartments for a total of NIS 960 million, of which its share was roughly two-thirds. That's a 6% increase from the year before, says Clal Finance. However, Revivo stresses that fourth-quarter 2009 sales slumped to just 137 units, down sharply from the previous quarter. "We will not rush to conclusions from a single quarter," writes Revivo. But he will keep an eye on developments. (TheMarker)

Bank Hapoalim's board approved a working plan for 2010-2012, highlights of which include achieving sustainable return on equity in the low to mid-teens (%). It means to cultivate private banking in Switzerland, London and New York "while adapting our activities to changing global regulations." The board vows to keep costs under control while expanding and to "devote special attention to risk management." That's a sticky issue for Hapoalim, possibly, after the supervisor of banks forced it to dump a portfolio of mortgage-based securities at a loss of about $1 billion, lest the bank lose far more than that. The watchdog also forced Hapoalim to dump its chairman, Dan Dankner, who was replaced by Yair Seroussi. (TheMarker)